Two men pleaded guilty Monday for the roles they played in shootings in Rand earlier this year that left a man dead.
William Lyttle, 23, of Costa, and Todd Hodge, 32, of Rand, both made deals with Kanawha County prosecutors and will testify against Gerard Maxwell, who is charged with murder in the death of Christopher "Snacks" Carey.
Lyttle on Monday pleaded guilty to wanton endangerment, a felony, and faces up to five years in prison, said Kanawha Assistant Prosecutor Maryclaire Akers. He also had been charged with malicious wounding and attempted murder, but prosecutors dropped those charges as part of the deal.
Hodge pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor of accessory after the fact to wanton endangerment. He faces up to a year in jail. He originally had been charged with accessory after the fact to murder.
The men were arrested about two months after the January shootings of Carey, 27, and Latisha Crawford, 28.
According to police, Maxwell, 29, of Rand, shot both Carey and Crawford, who recovered from her wounds, outside an apartment on Starling Drive.
On Monday, Lyttle said that during the incident he felt pressure to also fire a shot. He told Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King that Maxwell had given him a gun the day before the shooting and that he watched Maxwell fire the shots that hit Carey and Crawford.
Maxwell "had been having problems with the deceased and he gave a gun to me," Lyttle said Monday.
Lyttle said he was inside an apartment with Maxwell and several others when video surveillance inside the apartment showed Carey pull up in a car outside.
Maxwell "opened the door and shot," Lyttle said.
Hodge told the judge that, after the shootings, he threw Lyttle's gun in the river.
Akers asked the judge not to sentence the men until they testify at trial against Maxwell. That trial is set for Jan. 25.
Attorneys for Hodge and Lyttle both asked King on Monday to lower the amounts of their bail.
King agreed but said Lyttle must stay on home confinement and participate in drug treatment as a condition of bail.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.